We're gearing up for the Neshoba County Fair this month! Get a taste of Mississippi's eight-day "Giant House Party" by tuning in to the next Thacker Mountain Radio Hour—recorded live at the 2017 fair.
The Time: Saturday, July 14, 7 p.m. on your MPB radio station or online.
Your hosts: Jim Dees and house band the Yalobushwhackers.
The guests: Memphis blues powerhouse John Nemeth, undercover agent-turned-author Charlie Spillers, and pop-rock songwriter Coco Hames.
We'll also be back at the fair this year! Come and listen, stay and dance with us on Saturday, July 28, at 8 p.m. (Check out the guests here. Fair tickets are available here.) This year's show will be broadcast on MPB the following Saturday, August 4.
Click here for more information about Thacker Mountain Radio Hour—celebrating the music and stories of the emerging South.
LITERATURE
Charlie Spillers
Charlie Spillers is the author of Confessions of an Undercover Agent: Adventures, Close Calls, and the Toll of a Double Life (University Press of Mississippi). The book chronicles Spillers' true-life exploits as an ex-Marine undercover cop, narcotics agent, and federal prosecutor—and his years of crime fighting and narrow escapes.
Spillers dealt with a remarkable variety of career criminals, including heroin traffickers, safecrackers, burglars, auto thieves, and members of Mafia and Mexican drug-smuggling operations. And he lives to tell about it.
MUSIC
John Nemeth
John Nemeth is a soul/blues powerhouse harmonica player and vocalist based in Memphis. His newest CD, Feeling Freaky, was released in 2017 and was produced by Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars. One critic wrote that the album has the “hip coolness of the ’50s and ’60s blues with all the modern conveniences.”
Nemeth’s 2015 CD, Memphis Grease, won the 2015 Best Soul Blues Album, awarded by the Memphis Blues Foundation. Nemeth has been nominated a number of years for the prestigious B.B. King Entertainer of the Year award.
Coco Hames
Coco Hames, former frontwoman for garage-pop combo The Ettes, released her debut album, Coco Hames, on Merge Records in 2016. She coproduced the album with Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff). The sound reflects her love of big guitars; retro beats; and classic vocalists such as Dusty Springfield, Patsy Cline, and Bobbie Gentry.
